I Want to be Like You
by Uniasus
Summary: "Kathrine, you really should go to him." "I can't, I just can't Ombric. Seeing him like that, he's no longer mine." "You know he did it for you." "Yes," she sobs. "That just makes it worse."


"Kathrine, you really should go to him."

"I can't, I just can't Ombric. Seeing him like that, he's no longer _mine._"

"You know he did it for you."

"Yes," she sobs. "That just makes it worse."

* * *

><p>Something had changed, what with remembering the memories Moonbeam had held and using the magic of a Good Night Kiss. Inside him, something had shifted that both worried him and delighted him.<p>

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you want to do this?" North asks.<p>

He nods. This is a serious choice with serious consequences. But not enough to warrant the use of words. He nods again, adding a smile, and North sighs sadly. Why he is sad is a mystery because this, what he is going to do, feels right.

* * *

><p>She doesn't go out in the field now, it is too wide and her tiny selves too multiple for her to guide them with just her mind. But for this tooth, for this boy, she makes an exception. She even goes early to witness him playing in the fading Autumn light and sharing a meal with his family.<p>

This is not the boy she remembers meeting. Not this chatty figure who cows before parental authority. But there are similarities. A fondness of being high, caring for children, glowing when smiling.

A different personality, a different boy, and she thinks this is what keeps Katherine away. But she can see this boy is just as good, just as special. He's just as connected to her as her old friend.

* * *

><p>He doesn't care about <em>where<em> it will happen, not as much as he cares about _when_, but when he finds the village there is something perfect about it. It is near where he remembers waking up, where he relearned the meaning of warmth. And what he's planning is another type of waking, of closing his eyes one second and opening them to a new world the other.

There is magic, here in this small village. This area will be important many years in the future.

It's a good place to be renewed.

Now he just has to wait for the right time.

* * *

><p>He can't resist, staying an extra minute or two. He needs to see what has become of his friend, it's important enough where he's rid himself of his normal clothes because they would get in the way of hiding in bushes. His friend is a true child now, and not one of Santoff Claussen. There are different rules about interacting with children outside of that magical city.<p>

The sun has been up for a while now, but finally, finally the boy is opening the door leading to the outside world.

Where is the boy who sat quietly, watching others with a smile on his face? Where is boy who looked skyward? Who never slept, who put himself between harm and others? Who is this, with ungraceful movements and no sense of responsibility? Who is loud and liked tricking others?

There is only one thing that crosses his mind - what they had feared has actually happened, despite the low chance.

His friend hasn't simply gained a new body. He has turned into another person entirely.

* * *

><p>It has to be done.<p>

Katherine is changing, he notices the little things that point to it. How she dresss, how she walks, how she grows. He notices how her face has changed, after being trapped by Pitch.

She is _aging_. And he, he is not.

He has looked in rivers and windows, looking for signs of a change, but there isn't. There never would. He wants to be closer to her but she is slipping away while he is stuck.

That has to change.

He has to find a way to get unstuck, to move forward, to look in a mirror every so often and see a change like he could see in Katherine's face.

Things have to change.

* * *

><p>Human minds can lock or unlock things in times of great stress. It is something he has known for years, watching the trauma of children below him on Earth. Memories are hidden, buried, to protect oneself. They come back, gradually with time or suddenly with stress.<p>

They never come back without consequences.

And for this boy, the one who guarded him but he now guards, that consequence is inattentiveness. It's not remembering he did a task, just assuming he did because it's habit to do so. An important task, and not doing it is dangerous. Fatal.

And then the gentle trickle of memories becomes a flood from the soul and it causes so much pain, distracts him from saving his own life.

So he steals the memories. All of them. He hopes to give the boy his senses back, to allow him to live. But it isn't so.

In selfish grief, he brings his guard back. It doesn't matter how many changes he goes through, how many times he goes through the cycle of forgetting and remembering. They are a pair, they are tied together. The prince cannot let him go.

* * *

><p>It takes all her courage to visit the village. All her friends had insisted on coming with her, but she said no. It is a private moment and she is worried about crying and she knows her friends could not handle her tears. Ombirc and North worse of all.<p>

"Take someone else with you, for protection," North had insisted. She knew he wanted her to take Petrov, but doing so would have been an insult to Kailash. Instead, seated behind her, is the Spirit of the Forest.

She prepared herself for what Bunnymund had said, that he had changed. She had heard what Toothiana said, that he had not, not really. But in either case, it has been too long. Her heart hurts. She has to see him.

Except, when she lands in the village there is no one there. She wanders from cabin to cabin, all empty, with Kailash at her side and the Spirit at her back.

"Where have they all gone?" she asks the bejeweled woman. The protective spirit closes her eyes and talkes to the trees. When she opens them, they are sad.

"I don't not know where they have moved to, but I don't suspect it's the same place for all of them. I can tell why they left."

"Why?"

"The pond nearby is their source of water. But last winter a boy feel through the ice and drowned. They could not fetch his body. It poisoned the water and so they left."

"Which boy?"

The spirit does not speak and so her silence answers for her. It is the boy she has come to see, the boy who had changed himself to be closer to her, changed himself to be like her and grow with her.

She cries. Large, wet tears. Kailash covers her with a wing, the Spirit of the Forest wrapps her in hug. But who she really wants is the boy to collect her tears.

* * *

><p>Both of them are there, Ombric and North, because the spell is hard and might need to be changed as it happens. No one is better at inventing than North, but Ombric knows the spell best.<p>

The situation is delicate. They are changing his soul, or maybe it's his spirit. He has no real body, made of moonbeams and light. But he has shape. He has self.

He does not care so much about having the knowing of tall ones or tall wizards. He just wants it done.

There's a child been born. A still child, who does not cry. The mother is saying something, the other woman hiding the infant. There is sorrow in the air and then he hears Ombric say 'now!'

* * *

><p>It is years and years later and yet her heart aches. North had repaired the crashed <em>Nightmare Galleon<em> and she renamed it _The Escape_ and took off for the stars. They had called to her, their glow soft and familiar. She couldn't resist their call and hoped being among them would help ease the loss she felt for her friend.

They didn't and her chest still aches. So she returns home. Not to Santoff Claussen, but the North Pole because what ties her to the Guardians is telling her they are all there. There are five minds she can feel and they are happy.

Thought of reunion brings a smile to her face but it freezes when she steps off the ship.

She sensed five minds, as there should be since they lost one of them. But there are two missing - her dear friend and her dear father. For Ombric is gone too. And there has been a new Guardian appointed whom she can barely see behind North's bulk.

Her friends greet her with smiles and hugs while the new Guardian hangs back. Until suddenly she sees him and stops dead in her tracks.

White hair. Pale skin. A smile that glows. A staff with a curl, though it's on the wrong end and it lacks a diamond tip. Blue eyes. A soul who has spent time isolated. A boy who is more at home with children then adults. Wind playing with his shirt. And a center, a bright center that's capable of pushing back the darkness.

"Nightlight," she breathes and rushes to squeeze him.

He makes noises of protest, about his ribs hurting and her getting his name wrong. About the small golden capsule that falls out of his pocket. About wondering who she is.

But she doesn't answer and instead glares at her old friends. How could they not tell her?

Toothiana bends down to pick up the golden capsule, a tooth capsule, and pauses to look at the painting of the face on it. Her eyes widen and she shows it to Bunnymund, who in turns shows it to Sandy and North. There is an exclamation point over Sandy's head, the Guardians are both muttering to themselves and answering this new form of Nightlight's questions but she doesn't care.

She presses her face into Nightlight's chest and cries. He doesn't collect her tears, without a dagger is there even a point? Her heart still feels lighter.

He pulls away and looks at her. Speaks slowly. "I'm not Nightlight. My name is Jack."

Jack. Jack like the human he had become.

"But you are, in here,"she places her cheek against his chest and doesn't hear a heartbeat. But that is okay, she hears his soul instead.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>So, um...yeah. This is a rush (aka, written/edited within two day) fic spawned from me 1) finally finishing reading The Guardians books and 2) the author note musings of Esse in her fic In the Silence. More specifically, the thought that Jack is a movie construct since he is so similar to Nightlight. There is no need for two like him in the books. (the fic was written in bulk before the 4th book and before the announcement of Jack's book) 3) Joyce's own painting of Jack, _where his shadow is Nightlight__.  
><em>

I'm not sure if I agree completely, Joyce likes to name characters after his kids and he does have a son named Jack. Plus, not all the relics have been found. There are two left (or only one? Does dreamsand, being from the Golden Age, count as one?). Regardless, I'm pretty confident the original concept Joyce . for Jack was different than what Dreamworks came up with. But I'm also guessing that idea has changed since the release of the movie.

In my head, Jack never actually learns how he's connected to Nightlight though the Guardians all know it. His teeth only contained his human memories and that's all Jack will ever be aware of.

**Special FFnet AN: **Because this site is stupid and doesn't let me put in hyperlinks (follow me at AO3!) I'm highly encouraging you to search 'Jack Frost and Shane Prigmore' in Google. He worked on Jack Frost's character with Dreamworks since 2008 and has a blog post about his evolving image, including a bit about Joyce's original content for the boy.


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